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"It is hardly possible that Christianity should ever "be established in China. Vows of virginity, the "assembling of women in churches, their necessary "intercourse with the ministers of religion, their par

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ticipation of the sacraments, auricular confession, "extreme unction, the marrying but one wife, all this "oversets the manners and customs, and strikes at the religion and laws of the country." L'Esprit des Loix, xvi. 2. xvii. 6. xix. 18.

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This acute author is of opinion that Christianity, humanly speaking, can never get footing and ground in the eastern countries, the nature of the climate, the constitution and complexion of the inhabitants, and their temper and manners and laws being repugnant to some precepts of the gospel. I ask then, How came it to pass that in the first and second centuries Christianity found admission and made a progress in those countries, notwithstanding these, and many other difficulties and impediments besides these? Must we not ascribe its success either to miracles wrought in its behalf, or to an extraordinary influence of the Spirit of God upon the minds of those who embraced it? See Discourse iii. on the Christ. Religion.

About A. D. 150. flourished Justin, the first Christian author, after those who are called apostolical, a virtuous, pious, honest man, and incapable of wilfully deceiving, but a hasty writer, and of a warm and credulous temper. He was highly and justly esteemed by the ancient Christians, and Eusebius makes honourable mention of him, as of one iv T xat ἡμᾶς διαπρέψας λόγῳ, qui inter religionis nostrce sectatores maxime floruit, and he speaks of his two apologies, his dialogue with Trypho, and some other treatises, and

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produces some passages from that dialogue, which shew that he had it as we have it now.

He wanted neither learning, nor vivacity, nor an unartificial eloquence. The love of truth was his predominant passion, to which he sacrificed all worldly considerations, and for which he laid down his life with great resolution; and therefore whosoever loves truth, should love him and his memory. "Galen,' (says our amiable writer, John Hales) "Galen, that "great physician speaks thus of himself: I know not how, even from my youth up, in a wonderful man"ner, whether by divine inspiration, or by fury and possession, or however you may please to style it, "I have much contemned the opinion of the many; "but truth and knowledge I have above measure af"fected, verily persuading myself that a fairer, a

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more divine fortune could never befal a man. Some "little claim I may justly lay to the words of this excel"lent person; for the pursuit of truth hath been my on

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ly care, ever since I understood the meaning of the "word. For this I have forsaken all hopes, all friends, "all desires, which might bias me, and hinder me from driving right at what I aimed. For this I have spent

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my money, my means, my youth, my age, and all that I "have.-If with all this cost and pains my purchase is "but error, I may safely say, To err huth cost me "more than it has many to find the truth and truth shall give me this testimony at last, that if I have missed of her, it is not my fault, but my misfortune." Justin would not perhaps have expressed himself npon this subject with the same strength and elegance; but he had the same heart, and the same turn of mind.

In the first apology, he says to the emperors, We desire a fair trial, and no favour : if we are guilty, punish us; if we are innocent, protect us. We do not desire you to punish our calumniators; their own wickedness and ignorance is punishment enough. Où rus xalnyopörΊας κολάζειν ὑμᾶς ἀξιώσομεν· ἀρκονται » τῇ προσέση πονηρίᾳ, καὶ τῇ τῶν καλῶν ἀγνοίᾳ. Cicero had a thought of the same kind, but he spoiled it: he says somewhere, Odi hominem, et Utinam ulcisci possem; sed ulciscentur illum mo

odero. ris sui

We are slain with the sword, says Justin, we are crucified, we are cast to the wild beasts, we are bound with chains, tortured and burnt; and yet we are not only constant to our profession, but we increase and multiply: the more we are persecuted and destroyed, the more are added to our numbers. As a vine by being pruned and cut close, puts forth new shoots, and bears a greater abundance of fruit, so is it with us who are the vine which God and his Christ have planted. Ὁποῖον ἐὰν ἀμπέλες τὶς ἐκτέμῃ τὰ καρπου φορήσαντα μέρη, εἰς τὸ ἀναβλαςῆσαι ἑτέρες κλάδος καὶ εὐθαλεῖς καὶ καρ ποφόρες ἀναδίδωσι· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῖν γίνεται ἡ γδ φυτευ θεῖσα ὑπὸ το Θεῖ ἀμπελος, και σωτῆρος Χρισο, ὁ λαὸς αὐτῷ ἐσι. Horace :

Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus,
Nigree feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per cædes, ab ipso
Ducit opes animumque ferro.

The account which Justin gives of himself, as seeking truth among the Philosophers, the Stoics, the Peripatetics, Pythagoreans, and Platonics, and finding it in Christianity, is spritely and entertaining, and so is the manner in which he censures the Jews. It was foretold of you, says he to Trypho, that you be as the sand of the sea-shore; and so indeed

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you are,

if as numerous, as barren likewise, and as unfruitful of all that is good, ever ready to receive the refreshing dews und rain of heaven, and never willing and disposed to make any return. p. 394. Ed. Thirl.

I shall not undertake the vindication of Justin concerning the celebrated statue erected to Simon Magus: I am inclined to think that he was mistaken, and that the proud Romans would never have deified a Samaritan knave, and a strolling magician. It seems more probable that they would have sent him. to the house of correction, or have bestowed transportation upon him, or a stone-doublet sooner than a statue. Dr Thirlby, who pleads Justin's cause, concludes thus: Si quis autem querat quid de hac re ipse sentiam, patroni me potius quam judicis partes egisse, negare non possum, quaeque dixi, non tam veritatis gratia, quam Justini dixisse, cujus mihi cum editione defensio ex veteri more necessario suscipienda erat, &c. It is easy enough to know what this means, though some persons have made a shift to misunderstand it.

In behalf of Justin it might be said, that as worthless men as Simon had religious respect paid to them about the time when Justin wrote, or not long after. Alexander (the impostor perhaps, and false prophet) and Peregrinus, called Proteus, another knave, both of whom Lucian has satyrically celebrated, and of whom the latter burnt himself publicly, and one Neryllinus, an obscure mortal, had statues erected to them at Troas and Parium in the time of Marcus Aurelius, and when Neryllinus was living; to which statues divine honours were paid, and which were said to give oracles, and to work miracles. So cheap was deification in those days! This we learn from Athenagoras. Τρωάς και Πάριον· ἡ μὲν Νερυλλίνα εἰκόνας ἔχει, ἐς ἀνὴρ τῶν

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καθ' ἡμᾶς. τὸ δε Πάριον, Αλεξάνδρα και Πρωΐεος. Το ̓Αλεξάνδρα ἔτι ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς καὶ ὁ τάφος, καὶ ἡ εἰκών. Οἱ μὲν ἦν ἄλλοι ανδριάντες το Νηρυλλίνο, κόσμημά εἰσι δημόσιον—εἷς δε αὐτῶν καὶ χρηματίζει ἰᾶσθαι νοσᾶνας νομίζεται· καὶ θύεσί τε δι' αὐτά, καὶ χρύσῳ περιαλείφησι, και σεφανᾶσι τὸν ἀνδριάντα, οἱ Τρωαδεῖς· ὁ δὲ τῇ ̓Αλεξάνδρα, καὶ ὁ τὸ Πρωτέως—ὁ μὲν καὶ αὐτὸς λέγεται χρηματίζειν τῷ δὲ τῷ ̓Αλεξάνδρο δημοτελεῖς ἄγονται θυσίαι καὶ ἑορταὶ, ὡς ἐπηκόῳ θεῷ. Troas et Parium. Habet enim illa imagines Neryllini, viri qui nostro seculo virit : Parium vero, Alexandri et Protei Alexandri quidem etiamnum in for) et sepulcrum et simulacrum est. Porro Neryllini cæteræ quidem statuæ ornatus sunt publicus,-una vero ex illis tum consulentibus respondere, tum medicari dicitur. Quamobrem et sacra ei fuciunt, et auro illinunt, et coronant statuam Troadenses. Protei vero statua-similiter responsa dare perhibetur. Alexandri vero statuce-sacrificia publice et festa peragunt, tanquam propitio et exaudienti Deo. p. 122. Ed. Ox.

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Epiphanes, the son of the heretic Carpocrates, and a heretic as well as his father, was deified about the middle of the second century, or the time when Justin wrote. The account is remarkable: Επιφανής, δ καὶ τὰ συγγράμματα κομίζεται, εὸς ἦν Καρποκράτες—τὰ μὲν πρὸς παλὸς ̓Αλεξανδρεύς· ἀπὸ δὲ μητρὸς Κεφαλληνεύς· ἔζησε δὲ τὰ πάντα ἔτη ἐπΛακαίδεκα, καὶ Θεὸς ἐν Σάμῃ τῆς Κεφαλληνίας τετίμηται· ἔνθα αὐτῷ ἱερὸν ῥυτῶν λίθων, βωμοί, τεμένη, μεσεῖον ᾠκοδομηθαί τε καὶ καθιέρω Ται· καὶ συνιόντες εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν οἱ Κεφαλλήνες κατὰ νεμηνίαν, γενέθλιον ἀποθέωσιν θύεσιν Ἐπιφάνει· σπένδεσί τε καὶ εὐωχέναι, καὶ ὕμνοι λέγονται. Epiphanes, cujus etiam scripta feruntur, filius erat Carpocratis,-ex putre quidem Alexandrinus, ex matre vero Cephallencus. Vixit autem solum septendecim annis, et Samie, quæ est urbs Cephallenice, ut Deus est honore affectus. Quo in loco templum ex ingentibus lapidibus, altaria, delubra, museum, cedificatum est et consecratum :

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